Boss of Northamptonshire pubs failed to pay £1m in tax

Nick Spoors

A boss of a company that ran five Northamptonshire pubs has been banned from being a director for not paying tax.

Frederick Robert Ward, the director of CT (2010) Limited, formerly Churchill Taverns Limited, which was based at The Lakes, has been disqualified from acting as a director for four years.

It followed an investigation by The Insolvency Service after he had failed to pay Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs almost £1 million in taxation liabilities.

Mr Ward, aged 59, from Wellingborough, has given an undertaking to the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, that he will not act as a director of a limited company until December 14, 2016.

After going into administration, CT’s assets, including its five pubs, were sold to Clementines Tavern Ltd, of which Mr Ward was a director.

Clementines entered into administration on August 9 2012. However, the five pubs are still trading.

They are: The Kings Head, in Spratton, The Sun Inn, Kislingbury, The Plume of Feathers, Weedon, The Olde Victoria in Burton Latimer and Rafferty’s, Wellingborough.

Mark Bruce, a chief examiner at The Insolvency Service said: “Directors who fail to pay taxes to the Crown after they have taken the money from the public, whether from customers or employees, should not expect to get away with it.

“This is cheating the system by gaining an unfair advantage over their competitors at the public’s expense and we will put a stop to it.”

CT signed a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) with its creditors, including HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), in November 2008, setting out a plan to make contributions totalling £172,000 over five years.

However, CT contributed just £6,000 before the arrangement was terminated in November 2010.

The CVA stipulated that CT would be responsible for the payment of any taxation liabilities after the approval of the CVA, but the company paid just £64,050 to HMRC, before it went into administration on October 8 2010 owing the taxman £988,893.

Mr Bruce said: “Other directors tempted to follow this path should remember that if they run a business in a way that is detrimental to either its customers or its creditors they will lose the protection afforded by limited liability. The Insolvency Service will investigate them and seek to remove them from the business environment.”

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